How to effectively kill Illithids?

[Gracey Face]

I remember summoning skeletons being the way to go against them, due to skeletons being immune to devour brain and immune to the int drain, but now the illithids can brain suck the skeletons (somehow) so this isnt working anymore.

Right now I am resorting to just buffing and then bumrushing, and it works to an extent but is clumsy as all hell.

Is there an effective way to fight them?

[Julius Borisov]

Chaotic commands or Greenstone Amulet + Protection from Magical Weapons + Improved Haste

[Gracey Face]

Found out one myself thats a bit gamey but whatever :D. Just use the basic 24H invisibility spell on as many characters as you need to block a chokepoint and then shoot over them.

That probably works pretty well against everything that doesnt see through invisibility thinking about it.

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by Ned Flanders:

Punch em to death. Simple and effective.

Illithid: Devour brain
Punchmaster: Death

[anferFFmax]

Originally posted by A beautiful man.:

Originally posted by Ned Flanders:

Punch em to death. Simple and effective.

Illithid: Devour brain
Punchmaster: Death

LOL! A rather simple, yet effective, way to illustrate the problem.

To the OP: The level 7 mage spell Mordenkainen's Sword should make short work of them. But I'm not 100% certain. I find it disturbing they, according to you, can now suck the brains out of skeles, since I use skeles a lot. I'll have to check this out myself. My current run is still far of any of them so it will take me a while before I get to them.

[quartz64]

My PC is monk and he has AC of -10–11. I cast 'Chaotic commands' (protects from psionic blasts) and 'Protection from evil' on him. Mind flayers almost completely unable to hit the monk. So I just punch them while the rest of the team nails them with bolts and arrows.

[Godsarm]

Given that Chaotic Commands is a 1 turn/level duration, so is Death Ward and Protection from Evil 10' Radius by the time you start encountering Mindflayers your Cleric should be 18+ level. So at the initiation of any combat area, I cast the following long term buffs on each character Chaotic Commands, Death Ward and Protection from Evil 10' Radius. I also cast Remove Fear (though it only lasts an hour so have a couple back ups to recast). That takes care of the basics. Also, if you think you're going to run out, use multiple instances of Wonderous Recall and cast it right after casting Chaotic Commands as it picks the highest expended spell first to recall. The trade off is Heal.

Use Haste...it allows you to attack one more time per round and lets you run away

In the underdark I use a bunch of skeletons warriors to block doors. I don't remember if they get brain drained or just damaged in melee, but they don't seem to die very fast.

Mindflayers may be immune to a lot of things...but poison isn't one of them. Arrows and Bolts of Biting and Darts of Wounding work great. I find these things all the time early in the game and hoard them against the day we meet the mindflayers.

Micromanage your combat, low AC's to the rear, high AC's to the front and avoid melee at all costs. I make sure I have a clear line of retreat.

Either ignore the Umberhulks that accompany them or clear them out with a Fireball followed by Death Spell.

[anferFFmax]

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Given that Chaotic Commands is a 1 turn/level duration, so is Death Ward and Protection from Evil 10' Radius by the time you start encountering Mindflayers your Cleric should be 18+ level. So at the initiation of any combat area, I cast the following long term buffs on each character Chaotic Commands, Death Ward and Protection from Evil 10' Radius. I also cast Remove Fear (though it only lasts an hour so have a couple back ups to recast).

Use Haste...it allows you to attack one more time per round and lets you run away

Pretty much standard procedure for all fights in BG2, though I'm under the impression the OP was inquiring about other ways to get the job done.

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Either ignore the Umberhulks that accompany them or clear them out with a Fireball followed by Death Spell.

Not really much of a choice if he's on the higher difficulty tiers (Insane and LoB) since those hulks would tear his party apart. And I think he might be, because it's hardly worth asking for advice on the lower difficulties.

[mintymind]

If they can devour the brains of skeletal undeads, then that seems to me like a bug. I dont recall that being the case in the past. Perhaps its a new feature added by our lords and masters for our own good. Something about not taking our brain-privilege for granted, and protecting the feelings of skeletal warriors.

[anferFFmax]

Originally posted by mintymind:

If they can devour the brains of skeletal undeads, then that seems to me like a bug. I dont recall that being the case in the past. Perhaps its a new feature added by our lords and masters for our own good. Something about not taking our brain-privilege for granted, and protecting the feelings of skeletal warriors.

Ok I'm laughing now, wait not, I'M CRYING! Time to head out to my safe space...

[ÄmJii]

Originally posted by mintymind:

If they can devour the brains of skeletal undeads, then that seems to me like a bug. I dont recall that being the case in the past.

Nope, it's always been that way.

[mintymind]

i could swear that wasnt the case. I used to play with community fix packs etc though.

[anferFFmax]

I dont have any memory of it either, I'll certainly will be checking this out when I get to their area in the Underdark. My current playthrough is still in chapter 2 doing all the secondary quests so it will be a while till I get there.

[Godsarm]

Originally posted by anfermin:

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Given that Chaotic Commands is a 1 turn/level duration, so is Death Ward and Protection from Evil 10' Radius by the time you start encountering Mindflayers your Cleric should be 18+ level. So at the initiation of any combat area, I cast the following long term buffs on each character Chaotic Commands, Death Ward and Protection from Evil 10' Radius. I also cast Remove Fear (though it only lasts an hour so have a couple back ups to recast).

Use Haste...it allows you to attack one more time per round and lets you run away

Pretty much standard procedure for all fights in BG2, though I'm under the impression the OP was inquiring about other ways to get the job done.

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Either ignore the Umberhulks that accompany them or clear them out with a Fireball followed by Death Spell.

Not really much of a choice if he's on the higher difficulty tiers (Insane and LoB) since those hulks would tear his party apart. And I think he might be, because it's hardly worth asking for advice on the lower difficulties.

I get the impression that a lot of folks don't read full spell descriptions and durations. I was poining out that Chaotic Commands, Death Ward PoE and Remove/Resist Fear should be kept on all party members at all times as soon as the spells are available to your Clerics.

If it's a choice between brain damage and melee damage, I'll take the melee damage first and keep firing at the mindflayers with poison. They aren't immune to poison and I killed most that way.

[anferFFmax]

Well, the issue is durations is always going to be a problem when the spells in question have to be administered one party member at the time. In LoB, which is the difficulty tier I'm playing, and even in Insane, which is where I usually play at, fights often times out last the durations of those spells, which most certainly will be an issue to a party with just one cleric, which would be the case in the small parties I like to play. Further more, many people like me play at 60fps which cuts durations in half, which is easy to forget when you are calculating the spells durations out of reading their descryptions in the game.

Personally, I don't really use any different tactics to kill mindflyers than what I use for any other foe in the game, 1st, spawn summons, 2nd. cast prot spells, 3rd. send summons in, 4th. move actually party into the fight. And I have never had a problem with Flyers. But then there is the little detail that I haven't yet encountered them in LoB, so I guess I'll have to report back here when I do to comment on it. I'm not rellay expecting them to be any different though.

[Selty]

Mordenkainen's Sword + haste improved and you say bye to them